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A black kid walking around in a gated community. Rent-a-cop with a history of making false-alarm 911 calls immediately suspects the kid is "up to no good". Calls it in to the local cops...Local cops tell him to lay off, they'll handle it. Guy follows the kid anyway, approaches him, they get into a scuffle. Kid screams for help, rent-a-cop pulls his gun & shoots & kills the kid. Rent-a-cop says "self defense". No charges brought against rent-a-cop [yet]. Turns out the kid wasn't loitering. He was walking back from the store to his Dad's fiance's house where he was staying. The assumption being, if you're a black teenager walking around in an exclusive neighborhood, you're alkways "up to no good". There cant possibly be any other explantion for it.

"Lena gets her son ready for schoolShe says "On these streets, CharlesYou've got to understand the rulesIf an officer stops you, promise me you'll always be politeAnd that you'll never ever run awayPromise Mama you'll keep your hands in sight"

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Last week in Williamsburg in NY an 82 year old chinese man was robbed of his Iphone and thrown on the train tracks by two black men who called him "Chinky". This got half a paragraph on page 17 of the NY Post.

No national uproar. No marches. About 10 lines of copy on page 17. Because it happens every day, its not even news anymore. Draw your own conclusions.

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And before anyone starts shooting off their mouth...I am just asking what makes this particular crime special as opposed to all the other crime that is committed daily in the US. What makes this one newsworthy?

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This story is both tragic and weird. The dispatcher clearly told this guy not to follow the kid. It seems clear he was looking for trouble, unless there is stuff we are not aware of the fact he has not bee arrested is a mystery.

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And before anyone starts shooting off their mouth...I am just asking what makes this particular crime special as opposed to all the other crime that is committed daily in the US. What makes this one newsworthy?

No one would argue that this is as tragic as what happened in FL. Maybe the reason it didn't get national attention is because there is no evidence or justification to call what happened in NY a racially-motivated attack. The guy was oriental. He could've been white, Latino, Black. The intent of the crime was most likely robbery, not that the guy was Chinese.

In the instance of the episode in Florida, a licensed security guard, who was not authorized by local law enforcement officials to confront possibly suspicious individuals, but merely to report them, specifically targeted someone who he thought was loitering in a gated community. The person he targeted was a young African-American male. Why? There is reasonable suspicion that this security guard thought this individual didn't belong where he was because of his age and the color of his skin. Moreover, I heard on the Evening news last night the guard was not authorized to carry a firearm. Not only did he disobey instructions not to confront the the kid in question, he proceeded to have a physical altercation with him and then fired the weapon he was unathorized to carry, killing the kid....who was unarmed.

While the case you are bringing up is no less tragic, if you cant see the difference between the two, its because you choose to see it that way.

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Wow, there is some rush to judgement on this thread. Zimmerman may well be guilty, but none of us was there and knows exactly what happened, yet on this thread he's tried, convicted, and sentenced. The liberal community seems to do this every time an "unarmed" minority person is shot by law enforcement - regardless of whether the "victims" took actions that threatened or imperiled the officers. It's a kneejerk assumption, without even examining the facts, that the shooter was "racist" and the angelic "victim" had their rights denied and was shot solely due to the color of their skin.

It's a shame, I have heard a number of people already say they will not even listen to "Wrecking Ball" because, in their opinion, "Springsteen is a piece of s*** because he wrote 'that Amadou Diallo song'." Regardless of Bruce's actual intent re the message in that song, it has been taken as an indictment by law enforcement people and those who support and respect them: Yes, they think Bruce is saying, you're all a bunch of racists who disregard people's legal rights and wantonly shoot at dark colored people without provocation. Too bad so many people are totally turned off Bruce because of that one song. I know, you'll say "who needs them then," but a lot of them are decent people and might have enjoyed some of the music Bruce has done since that song came out.

Here is a quote from Zimmerman when he called this in to 911: "These assholes always get away with it". That's a direct quote taken from the audio tape of the call. Further, the 911 dispatcher CLEARLY tells him NOT TO ENGAGE OR CONFRONT, that they were dispatching police officers to the scene and that those officers would deal with the situation.

Based on the above, would it be wrong in your view if people assumed the worst?...

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"These assholes always get away with it". That's a direct quote taken from the audio tape of the call. Further, the 911 dispatcher CLEARLY tells him NOT TO ENGAGE OR CONFRONT, that they were dispatching police officers to the scene and that those officers would deal with the situation.

Based on the above, would it be wrong in your view if people assumed the worst?...

True, but then there's this which sounds a little different:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good or on drugs or something,” Mr. Zimmerman told a dispatcher in his initial call. “It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.” Mr. Zimmerman continued: “He’s here now just looking at all the houses. Now he’s just staring at me.” Then he added a second later: “He’s coming to check me out. He’s got something in his hands. I don’t know what his deal is. Can you get an officer over here?”

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It's a shame, I have heard a number of people already say they will not even listen to "Wrecking Ball" because, in their opinion, "Springsteen is a piece of s*** because he wrote 'that Amadou Diallo song'."